Essentials of Swedish Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Swedish

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This edition first published m 1991 by Passport Books A division of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group. Inc. 4255 West Touhy Avenue. Llncotnwood (Chicago). Illinois 60712*1975 U.S.A. Copyright © 1984 by Ake Vlberg and Bökfortagel Natur och Kuttur All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored m a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group. Inc. Printed in the United Stales of America International Standard Book Number: 0-0442-8539-0 01 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 V P 9 8 7 6

Preface

Essentials o f Swedish Grammar presents the major grammatical concepts of the Swedish language. For ease of use, the book is divided into 17 chapters organized into manageable sections, each covering a distinct point of grammar. The section number is indicated by two digits: the First (followed by a period) specifies the chapter, while the second indicates the order within the chapter. Thus, in Chapter 4, one would find sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3. and so on. Grammar rules are presented in a progressive order, showing how the language is gradually built up. To facilitate study, all grammar terms, even the most basic, are fully defined when they are first introduced. From the very beginning, users learn to form complete sentences, which they are encouraged to extend and modify in increasingly varied ways. As a further aid to the user, some grammar points are treated several times and in­ tegrated with other grammatical structures. For example, subject pronouns are dealt with in Chapter 2, object pronouns (including the reflexive sig) in Chapter 5, and the possessive pronouns in Chapter 12. Forms presented early on are generally summariz­ ed after the entire system of that structure has been covered. For instance, a brief over­ view of Swedish verb forms occurs as early as Chapter 2. The most important auxiliary verbs are treated in Chapter 6 , while a systematic presentation of all verb forms occurs in Chapter 9. Care has been taken so that the most important grammar points are presented as early as possible within a chapter. As a result, users wishing to understand the salient features of a particular grammar structure may concentrate on the initial parts of a giv­ en chapter. A detailed index at the end of the book assures easy location of each item. Examples illustrating grammar concepts were chosen for their authenticity—to repre­ sent the structures most frequently encountered in Swedish speech and writing. Thus, in addition to learning the fundamental rules of the language, users will also acquire a familiarity with the style and vocabulary characteristic of modern Swedish. Essentials o f Swedish Grammar is a thorough handbook that lends itself to a variety of uses. Because its basic approach is to provide simple, concise explanations, it can be used by students of varying levels, as well as by those who need a convenient reference to consult on confusing points of grammar. This book can be used for study and review, for individual or group work, as part of a refresher course, or for business, travel, or research. Essentials o f Swedish Grammar is a unique and effective language tool. Its authors and the publisher are confident that this comprehensive reference will prove indispen­ sable to all those teaching and studying the language of Sweden.

Contents

1

Introduction 7

5

Pronouns 31

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

What do you need to learn to speak a new language? 7 Why do you have to learn grammar? 8 Sentence and clause 10 Word forms. Endings 11

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4

Personal pronouns 31 Reflexive forms 32 man 33 Word order in clauses with pronouns 34

2

Word classes 12

6

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10

The verb and its forms 12 The noun and its forms 14 Number 14 Definiteness 15 Gender: en words and ett words 15 Personal pronouns 16 Adjectives 18 Adverbs 18 Prepositions 19 Numerals 19

Commands and clauses with more than one verb 35

.1 6.2

Two or more verbs in succession 35 Making the infinitive from the present 35 Some common auxiliary verbs 36 Commands. The imperative 38 Commands, requests and politeness phrases 39 Word order in clauses with more than one verb 39 Sentence adverbials 40 Yes/no questions with more than one verb 41 Question-word questions and fronting with more than one verb 42

6

6.3 6.4 6.5 6 .6

6.7 6.8

3

Subject, verb and object 20

3.1 3.2

6.9

3.3

The parts of a sentence 20 Subject, object and word order in Swedish 21 Subject-verb constraint 22

7

Complex sentences 43

4

Various types o f clause 23

4.1 4.2 4.3

Clause negation: inte 23 Yes/no questions 23 Question-word questions 24 r».-- )n words 25 r part of the sentence: adverbials 27 Fronting 28 Short answers 29

7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6

Coordination and subordination 43 Main clause and subordinate clause 44 A tt clauses 45 Adverbial clauses 45 Word order in subordinate clauses 47 Relative clauses 48

4 4

4.6 4.7

4

8

Pronunciation and spelling 49

8.15 8.16 8.17

Vowels and consonants 49 How sounds in language are made. Voiced and voiceless sounds 49 Length and stress 50 Acute and grave accent 51 Swedish long vowels 52 Swedish short vowels 53 Pronunciation of ö and ä before r 54 Pronunciation of the letter o 54 Swedish consonants 55 Swedish stops 55 Swedish fricatives 56 Other consonants 57 Consonant combinations 57 Letters combined with j pronounced as one sound 58 Pronunciation of the letters g, k and sk before front vowels 58 Pronunciation of the consonant com­ binations rt, rd, rn and rs 59 Doubled consonants 60 Doubling of m and n 61 Capital and small letters 62

9

The verb and its form s 64

9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17

The perfect and the pluperfect 64 The future 65 How to make the verb forms 66 The infinitive 67 The supine 68 The present 68 The past 69 Strong verbs 69 Short verbs 71 Irregular verbs 72 The passive 73 Making the s form of verbs 74 The participle forms of the verb 75 The present participle 77 The past participle 77 Verbs with two objects 78 Verbs with particles 79

8 .1 8 .2

8.3 8.4 8.5 8 .6

8.7 8 .8

8.9 8.9.1 8.9.2 8 .1 0 8 .1 1 8 .1 2

8.13 8.14

10 Forms o f the noun 81 10.1 En words and ett words 81 10.2 Definiteness 82 10.3 Use of the definite and indefinite forms 83 10.4 Countable and uncountable nouns 84 10.5 The plural forms of nouns 84 10.6 Plural forms: suffixes 87 10.7 Nouns that change their vowels in the plural 88 10.8 The definite form in the plural 88 10.9 Plurals: summary 90 10.10 The genitive 90

11 Adjectival agreement 91 11.1 The adjective and the noun phrase 91 11.2 Articles and adjectives in the indefi­ nite form 92 11.3 Articles and adjectives in the definite form 93 11.4 Articles and adjectives in the plural 94 11.5 Predicative adjectives 95 11. 6 Summary of the forms of the adjective 96 11.7 The adjective liten 96 11.8 Agreement of the participles 96 11.9 The t form of the past participle and of certain adjectives 97 11.10 The inflection of certain participles and adjectives 99

12 Possessive pronouns and the genetive 100 12.1 Possessive pronouns 100 12.2 The reflexive form of possessive pro­ nouns: sin 100 12.3 The forms of possessive pronouns 101 12.4 The forms of nouns and adjectives after genitives and possessives 103

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13 Some more determiners 104 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5

den här and den där 104 vilken 105 någon 106 inte någon - ingen 107 all, hel, annan, sådan and other deter­ miners 109

14 Comparison. Comparative and superlative 113 14.1 General comments on comparison 113 14.2 The comparative form of the adjective 115 14.3 The superlative forms of the adjective 116 14.4 Adjectives that end in er, el ox en 117 14.5 Irregular adjectives 117 14.6 Making the comparative and the superlative with mer and mest 119 14.7 Adverbs. Words denoting degree, quantity and number 120

15 Expressions o f place. Position and direction 121 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7

här and där 121 Verbs denoting position 122 Prepositions denoting position 124 Prepositions denoting direction 126 Some important verbs of motion 127 Verbs corresponding to ‘put’ 129 Preposition of position instead of preposition of direction 130 15.8 Particles 131 15.9 ‘Pojken sprang in i husetlut ur huset' 132

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16 Subordinate clauses and infinitive constructions 133 16.1 The infinitive marker att 133 16.2 Att clauses and the infinitive as sub­ ject 135 16.3 Important verbs followed by an att clause or the infinitive as object 138 16.4 Indirect questions 142 16.5 Indirect yes/no questions 142 16.6 Indirect question-word questions 143 16.7 Relative clauses 144 16.8 Isolated prepositions 146

17 Cleft and existential sentences 148 17.1 The cleft sentence 148 17.2 The existential sentence 150 17.3 When can you use the existential sen­ tence? 151

Index 153 Appendices The Swedish Alphabet 158 Numbers 159

Introduction

.1

What do you need to learn to speak a new language? There are many different things you have to learn before you can speak a new language. W hat most people think of first is, of course, all the new words, the vocabulary (ordförråd). A great many Swedish words are very similar to English words. First, there are all the everyday words that English and Swedish have as a common heritage from the old Germanic languages, words like finger, hand, syster, son, katt, and norr, and many of the num bers, days of the week and so on. Second, there are a large num ber of m odern international words that are more or less identical in Swedish and English: hotell, bank, television, politik, sport, fotboll, film, radio and so on. In fact there are so many Swedish and English words that look the same or nearly the same that you can understand some Swedish texts without know­ ing any Swedish at all. But the pronunciation is usually different, and anyway there are many Swedish words that are not the same in English, so learning vocabulary will take you a long time. Sometimes you can guess the meaning of a word from its form or its context, but not always. So you will need to get a dictionary (ordbok), so that you can look up new words and check their meaning and pronunciation. It will also be well worth your while to keep a special vocabulary book (glosbok) in which you note down new words and their equivalents in English as you come across them. W hen you speak, the words you say are made up of sounds (ljud). For example, with the sounds b e d you make the word ‘bed’. Many of the Swedish sounds are easy to learn because they are the same or almost the same as in English - sounds like b, d, f, k, I, m, n, p, s, t, v and,a few more. O ther sounds, however, such as most of the vowels and a few consonants, are different. Learning the pronunciation (uttal) of these new sounds is part of the business of learning Swedish. A nother problem is spelling (stavning) and the alphabet (alfabet). You will find the letters of the Swedish alphabet on the inside front cover. Normally a letter corresponds to one sound only, but there are a num ber of exceptions to this principle. For example, the letters c and z represent the same sound as the letter s, which is the one most frequently used. (In loan words and names c sometimes represents the same sound as k: calypso, C arin, Carlsson, etc.) Some sounds, for example, do not have their own letter; they are spelt by using a combination of letters, such as th in English. The combinations sj or skj in Swedish represent one sound, a sound fairly similar to the sound represented by sh in English. This Swedish sound occurs at the beginning of

7

words like: sjal

shawl

skjorta

shirt

Besides practising the pronunciation of the new sound, you will also have to learn what letter combinations are used to represent it when you write. There are also two very im portant features of pronunciation in Swedish which are not marked in writing: length (längd) and stress (betoning). As they are not indicated in writing, there is a risk that you will neglect them. But they are fundam ental to a good Swedish pronunciation, so read particu­ larly carefully 8.3, where you will find these features explained in detail. But to help you now, here is a short explanation of what is m eant by length. Length refers to the fact that a vowel sound in Swedish can be either short or long. (See the explanation in 8.3.) In the first of the following Swedish words the i sound is long, in the second it is short: sil

sieve

sill

herring

To help you learn the pronunciation of new words, special marks may be used to tell you when a vowel is short or long. Such marks are used in certain sections of this grammar, but they are never used in normal written Swedish. A long vowel is m arked with a dash (_) under the vowel, and a short vowel with a dot (.), thus: sil

sjll

A distinction is made between short and long vowels in Swedish only when the vowel is stressed. The meaning of the words stress and vowel is given in the chapter on pronunciation, 8 . We suggest that you read 8 .1-8.3 as soon as you have read the next few sections on grammar (grammatik). To speak a new language you need to learn how words are put together to make sentences. That is what is described in grammar (grammatik).

1.2 Why do you have to learn grammar? Imagine a simple situation when you want to say something in Swedish. You are in a small Swedish town you have never visited before and you can’t find any of the places you want to go to. Let’s imagine that the town has a bank, a post office, a railway station, a hospital and so on. If you can’t find the way to the bank, you can ask a passer-by: Var är banken?

W here is the bank?

W hat do you have to know to be able to ask a question like that in Swedish? You could, of course, learn the whole phrase Var är banken?, but if you go about it that way, you will have to learn a fantastically large num ber of phrases. However, if you compare our first question with the following ones, you will see that they are all alike:

8

Var Var Var Var

är är är är

posten? toaletten? torget? skolan?

W here W here W here W here

is is is is

the the the the

post office? toilet? market square? school?

Just as in English, all the questions are made up of a num ber of words, in English four or five words, in Swedish three. You can translate the questions almost word for word: (Var är banken?)

var=w here, är= is, banken= the bank.

The word var ‘w here’ is a question word or q-word (frågeord). O ther question words are n är ‘when’ and vem ‘who’: När är det? Vem är Olof Palme?

When is that? Who is Olof Palme?

To be able to construct a question correctly in Swedish, it is not enough just to know the words. You also have to be able to put them in the right order. This is called word order (ordföljd). Word order is very im portant in Swedish and it is not always the same as in English. In our examples above, however, the word order is the same in both languages. Not all questions contain the word ä r ‘is’. Here are some other possible questions: När När Var Var

somnar Kalle? vaknar Kalle? arbetar Kalle? bor Kalle?

When does Kalle fall asleep? When does Kalle wake up? W here does Kalle work? W here does Kalle live?

The words which replace ä r in the Swedish sentences are all of the same kind. They are called verbs (verb). Most verbs say what someone does or what happens. So we can make a rule about Swedish that says that the question word always comes first, provided there is a question word. Then the verb must always follow, directly. You can see this in a simple wordorder diagram: Q -W O RD

VERB

När

som nar

Kalle?

W hen does Kalle fall asleep?

Var

bor

Kalle?

W here does Kalle live?

Vem

är

Olof Palme?

W ho is O lof Palme?

Make questions yourself about some other people with the help of the following question words and verbs. (You can think of the names yourself.) Question words: var ‘w here’, när ‘when’, vem ‘who’, vad ‘w hat’. Verbs: dansar ‘dance’, sjunger ‘sing’, äter ‘ea t’, dricker drink’, skriver ‘w rite’, läser ‘read’.

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H ere are some of the questions you can make: Vad dricker Kalle? Var dansar Kalle?

W hat does Kalle drink (is Kalle drinking)? W here does Kalle dance (is Kalle dancing)?

If you put in other names instead of Kalle, you can, with the help of this simple rule, make many hundreds of questions. That is typical of the most im portant grammar rules: they tell you how to construct a virtually unlimited num ber of new utterances of the type that are called, in grammatical term s, sentences (meningar) and clauses (satser).

Sentence and clause When you speak o r write, your words are grouped together in sequences of larger units called sentences (meningar) and clauses (satser). In writing, a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, a question m ark or an exclamation mark: Sven sköt en björn. Vem sköt en björn? Skjut en björn!

Sven shot a bear. Who shot a bear? Shoot a bear!

. p u n k t (full stop) ? frågetecken (question mark) ! utropstecken (exclamation mark) In straightforward examples like this the sentence is also a clause. In fact, it is the clause that is the smallest natural unit which is composed of words. So a sentence always consists of at least one clause. The fact that there is a difference between clause and sentence is illustrated by the fact that you can put several clauses together to make a sentence with the help of little words like och ‘and’, men ‘b u t’ and a tt ‘th at’: One clause and one sentence Lisa arbetar. Sven sover.

Lisa works. Sven sleeps.

Two clauses and one sentence Lisa arbetar och Sven sover. Lisa säger, att Sven sover.

Lisa works and Sven sleeps. Lisa says that Sven sleeps.

The comma (kommatecken) is used in Swedish, as in English, in lists, but never before the words och ‘and’, eller ‘o r’, etc. (See 7.3 and 7.4 for use of the comma in sub-clauses.) M ona, Peter, Eva och Per bor här. Peter får skjuta en björn, en varg eller en älg.

M ona, Peter, Eva and Per live here. Peter may shoot a bear, a wolf or a moose.

1.4 Word forms. Endings G ram m ar not only describes how words can be combined to make clauses and sentences. It also describes how words can have various forms and how this affects their meaning. Take, for example, the word ‘w ork’ in English. In the following sentences it appears in different forms: He works here. We worked all day yesterday. She is working hard. work, worked and working are different forms of the word ‘w ork’. Different endings (ändelser) have been added. Ending w ork+ s w ork+ ed w ork+ ing O r take the word ‘car’. If you want to talk about more than one car you have to add the ending s: one car

two cars

Every ending has a particular meaning. The meaning ‘more than one’ is called the plural (plural). There are also plural forms in Swedish. The word for ‘car’ is bil. You make the plural of this word by adding the ending ar: en bil

två bilar

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Word classes

In any language there are various kinds of words, each of which follows a different rule in grammar. To describe this system, words are divided into word classes or parts o f speech (ordklasser). We have already met one im portant word class, the verb. As you saw in 1.2, it stands in a particular position in question-word questions. A nother typical feature of the verb, as with the other word classes, is that it changes its form in a particular way with particular endings.

The verb and its forms As we have seen, the verb usually describes what someone does or what happens. In both English and Swedish the verb has different forms according to when som eone does something or something happens. This is done by means of a change of form called tense (tempus). ‘Tempus’ is in fact the Latin word for ‘tim e’. This is the most im portant change of form in the Swedish verb. The verbs in the following pairs of sentences have different tenses: Olle arbetar idag. Olle arbetade igår.

Olle is working today. Olle worked yesterday.

Olle dansar nu. Olle is dancing now. Olle dansade för en timme sedan. Olle danced an hour ago. Olle duschar nu. Olle duschade imorse.

Olle is having a shower now. Olle had a shower this morning.

In the first sentence in each pair the verb ends in r; in the second sentence in each pair it ends in de; r and de are two possible endings of the verb. The ending r shows that something is happening now. This is a tense called the present (presens). The ending de shows that something happened earlier. This tense is called the past, or sometimes the preterite (preteritum). In English both the present and the past tense have two forms: the simple form and the continuous or progressive form. For example: Peter plays the piano. He is playing the piano now.

Simple present Continuous present

A nn worked hard yesterday. She was working all day.

Simple past Continuous past

Swedish does not have continuous forms of the verb; it only has the one simple form of the present and of the past, which end in r and de respectively and which are used to translate both the simple and the continuous forms in English.

Lisa arbetar nu. Lisa arbetar varje dag.

Lisa is working now. Lisa works every day.

Telefonen ringde klockan 7. Telefonen ringde hela dagen.

The phone rang at 7 o’clock. The phone was ringing the whole day.

As you can see, the Swedish present and past are translated in different ways according to the context. W hen you are a beginner, you usually meet a verb in the present form, as in the following sentence: Sten cyklar.

Sten cycles. (Sten is cycling.)

W hat do you do if you want to make the equivalent of the following sentence? Sten cycled yesterday. To make that sentence you need to know what ‘yesterday’ is in Swedish. It is igår. You also need to be able to change the present form of the verb cyklar into the past form. You do so with the help of the following simple rule:

Past: Take away the r and add de.

Like this: cyklar—>cykla/ + d e —>cyklade The sentence you wanted will then look like this: Sten cyklade igår. Now try making the past form of the verbs in the following sentences: Olle pratar. Olle städar. Olle skrattar.

Olle talks. (Olle is talking.) Olle tidies up. (Olle is tidying up.) Olle laughs. (Olle is laughing.)

The correct answers are, of course: Olle pratade. Olle städade. Olle skrattade.

Olle talked. (Olle was talking.) Olle tidied up. (Olle was tidying up.) Olle laughed. (Olle was laughing.)

The problem is that not every verb follows this rule. It is only valid for verbs which end in ar. These verbs are called a r verbs. But there is another fairly large group of verbs which end in er, the er verbs. They have a somewhat different form in the past. Some change their form completely, as in the last example below:

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Olle läser. Olle läste.

Olle reads. (Olle is reading.) Olle read. (Olle was reading.)

Olle skriver Olle skrev.

Olle writes. (Olle is writing.) Olle wrote. (Olle was writing.)

C hapter 9 presents the rules for all types of verbs in Swedish. Until you have studied that chapter, you can use the rule for forming the past of ar verbs. W hen you come across a different kind of verb, you will, for the time being, have to learn the past form by heart. If you look up a verb in a dictionary, it is usually given in the form called the infinitive (infinitiv). Examples of infinitive forms of verbs in Swedish and English are: cykla ‘cycle’, p rata ‘talk’, and läsa ‘read’. Usually the infinitive in Swedish ends in a. Unfortunately it is a form that is not all that useful when you are a beginner. You will probably use the present to begin with, and it is enough if you learn the verb in that form when you start to study.

The noun and its forms N oun (substantiv) is the term for words which denote persons (kvinna ‘wom an’, pojke ‘boy’), animals (hund ‘dog’, häst ‘horse’), things (kniv ‘knife’, cykel ‘bicycle’), material (vatten ‘w ater’, jä rn ‘iron’), and abstract ideas (skönhet ‘beauty’, styrka ‘strength’). The noun has several characteris­ tic types of endings, which we will present in C hapter 10.

Number In both Swedish and English the noun has different forms for number (inumerus). There are two forms which have the same name in both languages: singular (singular) and plural (plural). In English most nouns end in s in the plural. In Swedish there are several different plural endings, which are used with different types of nouns. The word stol ‘chair’ forms its plural by adding ar: stol + a r —>stolar ‘chairs’. But bank ‘bank’ forms its plural by adding er : bank + e r —>banker ‘banks’. There are a few other plural forms, which will be treated in detail in 10.5. To begin with you can learn the plural forms of some of the commonest nouns by heart as you come across them.

2.4 Definiteness A noun in Swedish, as in English, is usually accompanied by an article. The choice between the indefinite article (obestämd artikel) (‘a’, ‘an’; en, ett) and the definite article (bestämd artikel) (‘th e’; -en, -et) follows more or less the same rules in both languages. One im portant difference, however, is that the definite article in Swedish is an ending: IN D EFIN ITE A R T IC L E en häst a horse en katt a cat

2.5

D EFIN ITE A RTICLE hästen the horse katten the cat

Gender: en words and ett words Unlike English, the Swedish articles have different forms according to the gender (genus) of the nouns. Let us start with the indefinite article. In English it has two forms, but the choice between these two forms depends on the first sound of the following word, for example: an apple an egg

a green apple a brown egg

W hen the following word begins with a vowel sound, you use ‘an’, otherwise ‘a ’. The indefinite article in Swedish has two forms as well. With some nouns it has the form en and with others the form ett: en stol en skola en apelsin

a chair a school an orange

ett bord ett hus ett äpple

a table a house an apple

The choice depends not on the following sound but on the gender of the noun. Nouns which take en as the indefinite article are called ‘en words’ and those that take ett are called ‘ett words’. As a rule you have to learn the right ending for every new noun. W hen you write new nouns in your note-book, write them like this: en banan

ett äpple

The idea is that you should learn the noun together with its indefinite article, because you need to know if a noun is an en word or an ett word to be able to choose the right form of the definite article and several other grammatical points. If the indefinite article is ett, the definite article has a form with t (et or t alone) instead of a form with n (en or n alone): Sten köper ett äpple och en banan. H an äter äpplet men inte bananen.

Sten buys an apple and a banana. He eats the apple but not the banana.

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The way in which the indefinite and definite forms change according to whether the noun is an en word or an ett word is shown in the following table: ‘E N ’ W O R D S

‘E T T ’ W O R D S

Indefinite en banan

Definite bananen

Indefinite ett bord

Definite bordet

a banana

the banana

a table

the table

en stol

stolen

ett kök

köket

a chair

the chair

a kitchen

the kitchen

en gata

gatan

ett äpple

äpplet

a street

the street

an apple

the apple

As we have already m entioned, you will normally have to learn whether each noun is an en word or an ett word. There is, however, one type of word that follows a general rule:

W ords denoting people are en words.

Examples: en man ‘a m an’, en kvinna ‘a wom an’, en pojke ‘a boy’, en flicka ‘a girl’. There is, however, one common word that is an exception to this rule: ett barn ‘a child’.

Personal pronouns The person that performs an action denoted by a verb can be shown by words like /, you, he, and she. These words are examples of what are called personal pronouns (personliga pronom en). They say which person performs the action. In Swedish the verb does not change its form according to the person, so, as in English, you must always use a personal pronoun with a verb, unless there is a noun that stands as the subject and shows who perform s the action. Jag arbetar. Du arbetar. Han arbetar. Hon arbetar. Vi arbetar. Ni arbetar. De arbetar.

I work. You work. He works. She works. We work. You work. They work.

Note that the pronoun jag ‘I ’ is only spelt with a capital J when it comes at the beginning of a sentence. As in English, the pronoun de ‘they’ is the plural of both ban ‘h e’ and hon ‘she’. The pronoun du ‘you’ is nearly always used when you speak to one person, even if you do not know him or her. The

pronoun ni ‘you’ can be used as a polite form of address to one person, but it is not very common to do so nowadays in Swedish. Ni is always used, however, when you speak to more than one person. As in English, the pronouns han ‘he’ and hon ‘she’ are only used about people (or animals that are thought of as being more or less human). For animals and things den ‘it’ and det ‘it’ are used. Den is used about things which are en words and det is used about things which are ett words. Var är din man? Han är där.

W here is your husband? He is there.

Var är din fru? Hon är där.

W here is your wife? She is there.

Vi har en katt. Den heter Misse.

We have a cat. It is called Misse.

Jag köpte ett äpple. Det kostade 2 kronor.

I bought an apple. It cost 2 kronor.

Britta läser en bok. Den är bra.

Britta is reading a book. It is good.

Olle köpte ett paraply. Det är svart.

Olle bought an umbrella. It is black.

The pronoun de ‘they’ corresponds in the plural to all the following pro­ nouns: han ‘he’, hon ‘she’, den ‘it’, and det ‘it’. Vad gör K arin och Olle? De spelar tennis.

W hat are Karin and Olle doing? They are playing tennis.

Sten åt två apelsiner. De smakade gott.

Sten ate two oranges. They tasted good.

Titta på fåglarna! De är så vackra.

Look at the birds. They are so beautiful.

De is pronounced in rather a different way from what you might expect from the spelling. Usually it is pronounced dom (with a short ‘å ’ sound, see 8 .8 ). Sometimes you will see this form in writing, too, but it is thought to be rather informal: De spelar tennis. = Dom spelar tennis. In the following table you will find all the pronouns we have described. It is a good idea to learn them all as quickly as possible: SIN G U LA R jag du han hon den det

I you he she it (en words) it (ett words)

PLU R A L vi ni

we you

de (dom)

they

17

Adjectives Adjectives (adjektiv) denote qualities, what a person or a thing is like. Some common adjectives are: stor liten

big little

ung young gammal old

dyr billig

dear, expensive cheap

An adjective describes a quality in a noun. It can either be put together with the noun, or after the verb är. Jag har en gammal bil. Bilen är gammal.

I have an old car. The car is old.

Du har en stor klocka. Klockan är stor.

You have a big watch. The watch is big.

Note that, as in English, the adjective stands directly in front of the noun when it is together with it. The adjective changes its form in a special way. This is described in Chapter 11.

Adverbs A dverbs (adverb) are rather like adjectives, but they do not describe nouns; they qualify verbs or adjectives. In the following examples there are adverbs describing the action denoted by the verb: Lena stängde dörren snabbt. Per läser tidningen långsamt.

Lena closed the door quickly. Per reads the newspaper slowly.

In Swedish you can often make an adverb from an adjective by adding a t. The adjective ‘slow’ is långsam in Swedish, and you can make an adverb from it: långsam + 1 —>långsamt ‘slowly’. Snabbt ‘quickly’ is formed in the same way: snabb + t —>snabbt. The English ending ly as in ‘slowly’ and ‘quickly’ corresponds closely to the Swedish ending t as in långsamt and snabbt. Adverbs can also qualify an adjective. Two common adverbs of this type are mycket ‘very’ and ganska ‘rath er’. In the following examples snabb and långsam function as adjectives: Lena har en mycket snabb bil. Per är ganska långsam.

Lena has a very fast car. Per is rather slow.

2.9 Prepositions Prepositions (prepositioner) are small words that are used a great deal in both Swedish and English. In front of a noun they show, for example, where or when something happens: Sten är på kontoret. Bilen står på gatan. Eva sitter i bilen. Vi bor i Stockholm.

Sten is at the office. The car is in the street. Eva is sitting in the car. We live in Stockholm.

Vi reser i decem ber. Per kom m er på onsdag.

We leave in Decem ber. Per is coming on Wednesday.

Although quite a few Swedish prepositions have a corresponding preposition in English, it is always best to learn a preposition in a phrase: på gatan på kontoret i bilen i decem ber på onsdag

in the street at the office in the car in Decem ber on Wednesday

You can read more about prepositions in 15.3 and 15.4.

2.10 Numerals The numerals (räkneord) are considered as a separate word-class. A distinc­ tion is made between cardinal numbers (grundtal), which indicate num ber, and ordinal numbers (ordningstal), which indicate order. The following are examples of cardinal numbers: en, ett två 3 tre 4 fyra 5 fem 1

2

one two three four five

sex 7 sju 8 åtta 9 nio 1 0 tio 6

six seven eight nine ten

Första ‘first’ and andra ‘second’ are examples of ordinal numbers. Första maj är en helgdag i Sverige.

The first of May is a public holiday in Sweden.

With the help of the table on the inside back cover you can form most of the numerals. It’s well worth your while to try to learn all the cardinal numbers in particular as quickly as possible.

19

Subject, verb and object

The parts of a sentence We have talked about word classes and now we must go on to look at the parts of a sentence. In Swedish a word normally belongs to a particular word class; this can be looked upon as an integral feature of a word. Words like jägare ‘hunter’ (person), lejon ‘lion’ (animal) and gevär ‘gun’ (thing) are, for example, always nouns in Swedish. Note that this distinction is not quite so clear in English. The word ‘gun’, for example, can be a verb as well as a noun. But nouns can play different roles in a sentence. The following sentences have quite different meanings although they use the same nouns and the same verb: The hunter killed the lion. The lion killed the hunter. You can think of these sentences as little scenes in which the nouns play different roles. These different roles are called the parts o f a sentence (satsdelar). The part of a sentence indicates what role a noun plays in a particular sentence, while the word class can be established for most Swedish words in isolation. In the sentence ‘The hunter killed the lion’ it is the hunter that does something - he kills the lion. The person or thing that does something is called the subject (subjekt). There is also someone or something that is affected by what the subject does. In the sentence above it is the lion; it gets killed. The person or thing that the subject does something to is called the object (objekt). In the sentence ‘The lion killed the hunter’ the roles are reversed: here the lion is the subject and the hunter is the object. You can often check what is the subject and what is the object of a sentence by asking questions. You can find the subject by asking questions like: Who is doing (did) something? What is doing (did) something?: WholW hat did something? The hunter killed the lion. The lion killed the hunter. Peter kissed Mary. Mary kissed Peter.

The hunter The lion Peter Mary

(= (= (= (=

the the the the

subject) subject) subject) subject)

You can find the object by asking a question that contains the subject and the verb. This gives you questions like ‘W hat did the hunter kill?’, ‘Who did Peter kiss?’

The hunter killed the lion. Peter kissed Mary. The lion killed the hunter. Mary kissed Peter.

3.2

Question

Answer (= the object)

W hat did the hunter kill? W ho did Peter kiss? Who did the lion kill? Who did Mary kiss?

The lion. Mary. The hunter. Peter.

Subject, object and word order in Swedish W hen you make a sentence in Swedish, as in English, you normally have the word order SU BJECT + VERB + O BJECT. D on’t use a different word order until you have learnt the rule that says you may do so. (You will be given several such rules later on.) To make sentences in Swedish you can use the following table: SU BJECT

VERB

OBJECT

Jägaren

dödade

lejonet.

dödade

jägaren.

skriver

ett brev.

läser

tidningen

T he hunter killed the lion.

Lejonet T he lion killed the hunter.

Eva Eva is w riting a letter.

Olle

Olle is reading the newspaper.

Familjen Nygren

äter

middag.

T he Nygrens are having dinner.

Olle

spelar

tennis.

O lle is playing tennis.

Some verbs only have a subject and no object. You can make this type of sentence with the same table, but the object position will be empty. SUBJECT

VERB

Sten

väntar.

OBJECT

Sten is waiting.

Olle

arbetar.

O lle is working.

Karin

sjunger.

Karin is singing.

21

3.3 Subject-verb constraint* In Swedish, as in English, all clauses must contain a subject and a verb. This rule is called the subject-verb constraint or place-holder constraint (platshållartvång). In many languages it is possible to leave out the subject if it is a pronoun like I, you, we etc., but it is not possible in Swedish: I sleep well. We are going home tomorrow.

Jag sover bra. Vi reser hem imorgon.

In Swedish there is also, just as in English, an ‘em pty’ subject which does not refer to anything particular. It is the pronoun det ‘it’ which is, for example, used before verbs that describe the weather: Det D et D et D et D et

It It It It It

regnar. snöar. blåser. är kallt ute. är varm t inne.

is is is is is

raining. snowing. windy. cold out. w'arm indoors.

As det ‘it’ does not refer to anything particular, it is called the form al subject (formellt subjekt). There are also languages which, in certain cases, leave out the verb, especially the verb ‘be’. H ere too, however, Swedish and English are alike; both languages always use a verb: Per är hungrig.

Per is hungry.

To remind you that there must always be a subject and a verb in a Swedish sentence or clause, the subject and the verb will be marked in the tables that describe word order, like this:

SU BJECT

VERB

O BJECT

kommer. regnar.

Karin

spelar

tennis.

läser

tidningen.

Karin is reading the paper.

* This section is mainly for those whose native language is not English.

22

Various types o f clause Clause negation: inte Clauses may be affirmative clauses or negative clauses. With many verbs English uses the dummy verb ‘do’ + ‘not’ to form negative clauses. In Swedish only one word is used, inte, which always has the same form: Affirm ative clause

Negative clause

Jag dricker kaffe.

Hon dricker inte kaffe.

I drink coffee.

She does not drink coffee.

Per tycker om te.

Lena tycker inte om te.

Per likes tea.

Lena does not like tea.

The word inte is placed directly after the verb.

X V

SU BJECT

VERB

Sten

cyklar.

inte

OBJECT

Sten cycles.

Olle

cyklar

inte.

O lle does not cycle.

B ritta

äter

frukost.

B ritta has breakfast.

Karin

äter

inte

frukost.

Karin does not have breakfast.

Det

regnar.

It is raining.

D et

snöar

inte.

It is not snowing.

Thus it is much easier to m ake negative clauses in Swedish than it is in English.

Yes/no questions A distinction is also made between statem ents and questions. A statem ent is used when you want to tell someone something. A question is used when you want to find out something. D epending on what kind of verb there is in the sentence, you make a question in English either by putting the dummy verb ‘do’ in front of the subject or by putting the auxiliary verb in front of the subject: Statement

Question

John likes fish. You can speak Swedish.

Does John like fish? Can you speak Swedish?

You can answer questions like these with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, so they are called yeslno questions (jalnej-frågor). As we saw in 1.2 there is another type of question that begins with a question word. This type is called a questionword question (frågeordsfråga). We shall deal with them in the next section. In Swedish you show that a sentence is a question simply by putting the verb at the beginning of the sentence. The subject always comes directly after the verb. No other word is needed.

VERB

SU BJECT

A rbetar

Elsa?

O BJEC T

D oes Elsa work?

Kör

hon

buss?

D oes she drive a bus?

Skriver

Josefin?

D oes Josefin write?

Skriver

hon

brev?

D oes she write letters?

Gillar

du

musik?

D o you like music?

Regnar

det?

Is it raining?

Ser

du

Per?

C an you see Per?

Question-word questions Question-word questions are questions you cannot answer with ‘Yes’ or ‘N o’. Imagine a situation which can be described with the following sen­ tence: Sten äter ett äpple i köket på morgonen.

Sten eats an apple in the kitchen in the morning.

Questions and answers of the following kinds are then possible: Question-word questions

Answers

Vad gör Sten?

Han äter.

W hat does Sten do?

He eats.

Vem äter?

Sten.

W ho eats?

Sten.

Vad äter han?

E tt äpple.

W hat does he eat?

A n apple.

Var äter han?

I köket.

W here does he eat?

In the kitchen.

När äter han?

På morgonen

W hen does he eat?

In the morning.

Just as in English the question word always comes first in the sentence. But in Swedish you must always put the subject directly after the verb. No other words are needed. Always follow the word order in the table:

Q -W O RD

VERB

SU BJECT

Var

bor

Josefin?

O BJECT

W here does Josefin live?

Vad

heter

du?

W hat is your nam e?

Var

äter

Kalle

middag?

du

bilen?

W here does Kalle have supper?

När

sålde

W hen did you sell the car?

När

regnade

det?

W hen did it rain?

Note that just as in statements there must be a subject in the question. The subject position in the table is empty only when the question word itself is the subject, as in the following questions:

Q -W O RD

VERB

Vem

bakar

SU BJECT

O BJECT bröd?

W ho is baking bread?

Vad

hände?

W hat happened?

N ote, too, that the question words do not have different forms in Swedish. The only question word that can change its form in English is ‘who’, which can have the form ‘whom’ when it is the object. But most English people use the form ‘who’ for subject and object, just as Swedish uses vem:

4.4

Vem ser du? Vem vet svaret?

Who (Whom) can you see? Who knows the answer?

Vad är bäst? Vad köpte du?

W hat is best? W hat did you buy?

Question words The most im portant question words have already been described above. They are repeated in the following list, which also contains a few other, more special question words that it will pay you to learn as you come across them.

25

vem is used when you ask about a person, just like ‘who’ in English. Vem corresponds to both ‘w ho’ and ‘whom’. Vem står därborta? Vem träffade du igår?

Who is standing over there? Who (W hom) did you meet yesterday?

vems is used when you ask about the owner of something, just like ‘whose’ in English. Vems cykel lånade du?

Whose bicycle did you borrow?

The plural of vem is vilka: Vilka kom m er i kväll?

Who are coming this evening?

vad is used when you ask about things. It has only one form, just like ‘what’ in English. Vad irriterar dig så? Vad köpte Olle? Vad sa han?

W hat is irritating you so much? W hat did Olle buy? W hat did he say?

The following question words are used to ask about place: var ‘w here’ Var bor du? Var är tvålen?

W here do you live? W here is the soap?

vart ‘w here’, in the sense of ‘where to ’. That is, when destination and not position is referred to. Vart reste ni på sem estern? Vart tog han vägen?

WTiere did you go for your holiday? W here did he go to?

varifrån ‘where . . . from ’ Varifrån kom m er du?

W here do you come from?

n är ‘w hen’ is the most im portant question word for asking about a point in time: När tvättade du fönstren? När dog Napoleon?

When did you clean the windows? When did Napoleon die?

h u r dags can be used instead of n är when you expect the answer to be clock time; in English you can ask ‘W hat tim e’ instead of ‘W hen’: N är vaknade du imorse? H ur dags vaknade du imorse? Klockan sju.

W hen did you wake up this morning? W hat time did you wake up this morning? (A t) seven o’clock.

varför ‘why’ is used when you ask about the reason for something: Varför ljög du? Varför gråter Sten?

26

Why did you tell a lie? Why is Sten crying?

h u r ‘how1 is used when you ask about the way something is done: H ur kom du till Sverige? H ur gör man ost?

How did you get to Sweden? How do you make cheese?

There are also many special question phrases that begin with hur: hur mycket ‘how m uch’ H ur mycket kostar potatisen? H ur mycket är klockan?

How much do the potatoes cost? W hat time is it?

Instead of hur mycket you can use vad: Vad kostar potatisen? Vad är klockan?

W hat do the potatoes cost? W hat is the time?

hur långt ‘how far’ H ur långt är det till skolan?

How far is it to school?

hur länge ‘how long’ H ur länge var du i England?

How long were you in England?

h u r ofta ‘how often’ H ur ofta går du på bio?

How often do you go to the cinema?

hur dags ‘w hen’, see above.

4.5

Another part of the sentence: adverbials You often want to say where or when something happens. For this you use an adverbial (adverbial). Normally the adverbial comes after the object in Swedish. Do not use a different word order until you have learnt a special rule that says you may do so.

SU BJECT

VERB

O BJEC T

A D V ER B IA L

B ritta

tvättade

bilen

i garaget.

B ritta washed the car in the garage.

Sten

cyklar

på gatan.

Sten is cycling in the street.

Ola

träffade dricker

We have coffee after lunch.

Var? W here?

Camilla

igår.

O la m et Camilla yesterday.

Vi

Var? W here?

När? W hen?

kaffe

efter lunch.

När? W hen?

Adverbials that answer the question Where? are called place adverbials (platsadverbial), and adverbials that answer the question When? are called time adverbials (tidsadverbial). If a sentence contains both a place and a time adverbial, the place adverbial usually comes before the time adverbial:

27

A D V ER B IA L SU BJECT

VERB

O BJECT

PLACE

TIM E

Britta

dricker

kaffe

i köket

på morgonen.

på flygplatsen

i morgon.

i Stockholm

i förra veckan.

B ritta has coffee in the kitchen in the m orning.

Jag

m öter

dig

I ’ll m eet you at the airport tom orrow.

Vi

besökte

pappa

We visited D ad in Stockholm last week.

D et

regnade

i Malmö

i förrgår.

It rained in M almö the day before yesterday.

An adverbial describes various circumstances connected with the event the verb describes. There are other types of adverbial, such as phrases that answer the question H o w l These are normally placed after the object:

X VV ERB

SU BJECT B ritta

tvättade

O BJECT

A D V ER B IA L

bilen

slarvigt.

B ritta

tvättade

Hur? How?

B ritta washed the car carelessly.

bilen

med en svamp. Hur? How?

B ritta w ashed the car with a sponge.

Fronting It is quite common to begin a sentence with an adverbial instead of the subject. This is called fronting the adverbial. When the adverbial comes at the beginning of the sentence, the subject must always be placed directly after the verb, just as when question words begin a sentence (compare 4.3). In the following table the fronted part of the sentence is called X. The examples shown are based on some of the sentences in the previous section, 4.5, with the normal word order:

X

VERB

På morgonen dricker

SU BJECT

O BJECT

A D V ER B IA L

Britta

kaffe

i köket.

kaffe

på morgonen.

In the m orning B ritta has coffee in the kitchen.

I köket

dricker

Britta

The kitchen is where B ritta has coffee in the m orning.

Imorse

läste

Per

tidningen

på bussen.

This m orning P er read the new spaper on the bus.

I förrgår

regnade

det

i Malmö.

T he day before yesterday it rained in Malmö.

I Malmö

regnade

det

i förrgår.

In M almö it rained the day before yesterday.

Försiktigt

öppnade

Carefully O lle opened the door.

Olle

dörren.

As you can see from these examples, English cannot always begin a sentence with the adverbial, as Swedish can. But the main difference between Swedish and English is the word order of the subject and the verb. In Swedish the verb must come before the subject when the sentence begins with an adverbial, but not in English. Only one adverbial can be fronted in a sentence at a time. O ther parts of a sentence than an adverbial can be fronted, too, for example an object; here, too, the verb must be placed before the subject. Fronting an object is not very common and you should therefore avoid it at the beginner’s stage. However, all the following variants are possible in Swedish: Jag köpte den här väskan i Italien. 1 I Italien köpte jag den här väskan. | I bought this bag in Italy. D en här väskan köpte jag i Italien. I

4.7

Short answers A yes/no question can be answered with the words ‘Yes’ or ‘N o’ alone: Question: Answer:

Kom mer du imorgon? Ja or Nej.

A re you coming tomorrow? Yes or No.

But in Swedish, as in English, it is quite common to add a short phrase to these answers. This kind of answer is called a short answer (kortsvar): Question: Short answer:

R öker han? Ja, det gör han. or N ej, det gör han inte.

Does he smoke? Yes, he does, or No, he doesn’t.

In short answers in Swedish you do not repeat the main verb in the question. Instead you use the verb göra ‘d o ’, in the present (gör) if the question is in the present, or in the past (gjorde) if the question is in the past. As you can see from the examples, these short answers are similar in Swedish and English: Question: Short answer: Question: Short answer:

Spelar hon piano? Ja, det gör hon. or N ej, det gör hon inte. Spelade hon piano? Ja, det gjorde hon. or N ej, det gjorde hon inte.

Does she play the piano? Yes, she does, or No, she doesn’t. Did she play the piano? Yes, she did. or No, she didn’t.

Note the word order in the short answers: Ja,

gör + det + gjor(je + SU BJECT (+ inte if the answer is nej)

29

Note also how Swedish includes the word det ‘it’. H ere are a few more examples: A rbetar du här? - Ja, det gör jag. - N ej, det gör jag inte.

D o you work here? - Yes, I do. - No, I don’t.

A rbetar de här? - Ja, det gör de. - N ej, det gör de inte.

Do they work here? - Yes, they do. - No, they don’t.

A rbetade hon här? - Ja, det gjorde hon. - N ej, det gjorde hon inte.

Did she work here? - Yes, she did. - No, she didn’t.

K änner du Peter? - Ja, det gör jag. - N ej, det gör jag inte.

Do you know Peter? - Yes, I do. - No, I don’t.

Lyssnar han på radio? - Ja, det gör han. - N ej, det gör han inte.

Does he listen to the radio? - Yes, he does. - No, he doesn’t.

There are a few verbs which are not replaced by göra but which are repeated. The most im portant of these are vara ‘be’ (present: ä r, past: var) and ha ‘have’: Ä r du glad? - Ja, det är jag. - N ej, det är jag inte.

A re you happy? - Yes, I am. - No, I’m not.

H ar han en syster? - Ja, det har han. - N ej, det har han inte.

Has he a sister? - Yes, he has. - No, he hasn’t.

Again, you can see that the Swedish and English short answers are similar. The auxiliary verbs, which will be dealt with in 6.3, are also repeated, as in English (see 6 .8 ). W hen you answer ‘Y es’ to a negative question in Swedish, you use a special word, jo:

30

Köpte han inte bilen? Jo, det gjorde han.

D idn’t he buy the car? Yes, he did.

R öker han inte? Jo, det gör han.

D oesn’t he smoke? Yes, he does.

Pronouns Personal pronouns Personal pronouns have a special form when they act as the object (objektsform ): Jag älskar dig. Älskar du mig? H är är Kalle. Jag ser honom. D är är M aria. Vi ser henne. De ser inte oss. Men vi ser dem.

I love you. Do you love me? H ere’s Kalle. I can see him. T here’s Maria. We can see her. They can’t see us. But we can see them.

In 2.6 you met the forms the personal pronouns have when they function as the subject. H ere are the corresponding objective forms: O BJECTIV E FORM

SU BJECTIV E FORM jag du han hon den det vi ni de (dom)

I you he she it (en words) it (ett words) we you they

mig (mej) dig (dej) honom henne den det oss er dem (dom)

me you him her it it us you them

Mig and dig have special forms in spoken Swedish. You may even sometimes see them written down. These forms were given in brackets in the table above: Colloquial Jag älskar dig. = Jag älskar dej. Älskar du mig? = Älskar du mej?

I love you. Do you love me?

In spoken Swedish, too, both de and dem have the form dom: Colloquial De kommer imorgon. = Dom kom m er imorgon. Jag ser dem.

= Jag ser dom.

They are coming tomorrow. I can see them.

If you use this last form, there is no difference between the subjective and the objective forms. In Swedish, as in English, there is only one objective form of the personal pronouns. This form is also used after prepositions and after verbs followed by a preposition:

31

Kalle gillar M aria. Han talar alltid om henne. Han väntade på henne flera timmar. Han talade länge med henne. Kalle är mycket förtjust i henne.

Kalle likes Maria. He is always talking about her. He waited for her for several hours. He spoke to her for a long time. Kalle is very keen on her.

Reflexive forms Unlike English, which has special forms with ‘-self and ‘-selves’, such as ‘myself’, ‘themselves’, etc., Swedish uses the same objective forms of the personal pronouns as reflexives, except in the third person: Jag tvättar mig. Du tvättar dig. Vi tvättar oss. Ni tvättar er.

I wash myself. You wash yourself. We wash ourselves. You wash yourselves.

In the third person singular and plural Swedish has a special reflexive form, sig, to show that the object is the same person as the subject. This form corresponds in English to ‘him self, ‘herself’ and ‘themselves’: Vad gör Per? Han tvättar sig.

W hat is Per doing? He is washing (himself).

Vad gör Karin? H on klär på sig.

W hat is Karin doing? She is dressing (herself).

Vad gör Olle och Sten? D e rakar sig.

What are Olle and Sten doing? They are shaving (themselves).

Compare: Vad gör du med lilla Lisa? Jag kamm ar henne.

W hat are you doing with little Lisa? I am combing her hair.

Vad gör lilla Lisa? Hon kam m ar sig.

W hat is little Lisa doing? She is combing her hair.

Vi måste skynda oss.

We have to hurry.

As you can see from the examples above, many Swedish verbs which use a reflexive pronoun correspond to English verbs where there is no reflexive or where it may be left out. The word sig has a special spoken form which is sometimes used in writing: sej. Colloquial Per tvättar sig. = Per tvättar sej.

Per is washing (himself).

The following table presents all the forms of the personal pronoun that have been discussed:

SIN G U LA R SU BJECTIV E FORM

O BJEC TIV E FORM

REFLEX IV E FORM

jag du han hon den det

mig dig honom henne den det

mig dig sig sig sig sig

I you he she

it it

me you him her it it

myself yourself himself herself itself itself

PLU RA L

5.3

SU BJECTIV E FO RM

O BJEC TIV E FORM

R EFLEX IV E FORM

vi ni de

we

OSS

us

OSS

ourselves

you

er dem

you

er sig

yourselves

they

them

themselves

man A nother common pronoun in Swedish is man ‘one’. It is used when you are not thinking of any particular person or when you are talking about some­ thing that concerns everybody, people in general. It can correspond in English to ‘you’, ‘they’, ‘people 1 or ‘we’, as well as the more formal ‘one’. Man blir trött om man sover för mycket. I Sverige dricker man mycket kaffe. På vintern åker man ofta skidor. M an ser sjön från balkongen.

One gets tired if one sleeps too much. You get tired if you sleep too much. They drink a lot of coffee in Sweden. In the winter people often go skiing. One sees the lake from the balcony. You can see the lake from the balcony. We can see the lake from the balcony.

The objective form of man is en. If the object refers back to the subject, the reflexive form sig is used: Ingen gillar en, om man skryter. M an frågar sig, varför det hände.

No one likes you, if you boast. One asks oneself why it happened.

SU B JEC T IV E FO R M

OBJECTIVE FO RM

REFLEXIVE FORM

man 'on e '

en 'on e '

sig 'oneself'

33

Word order in clauses with pronouns In Swedish, as in English, a pronoun acting as object is always placed in the same position as a noun acting as object:

SU B JEC T

VERB

OBJECT

Eva

fick

ett brev.

läste

det

Eva g o t a letter.

Hon

genast.

S h e read it at o n ce.

Per

känner

Maria.

Per k n o w s Maria.

Han

träffade

henne

i London,

sig

varje morgon,

med dem

på telefon.

H e m e t her in L ondon.

Erik

rakar

Erik sh aves every m orning.

Jag talade I spoke to them on the phone.

If the clause contains the negative word inte ‘not’, however, a pronoun object is not usually placed before the inte. Compare: Hon läste inte brevet. H on läste det inte. Jag såg inte Per. Jag såg honom inte. B arberaren rakade inte Per. Per rakade sig inte.

She did not read the letter. She did not read it. I did not see Per. I did not see him. The barber did not shave Per. Per did not shave (himself).

A pronoun object may in certain cases come after inte, exactly as a noun object does. This will, however, make it contrastive and emphatic: K änner du Per? N ej, jag känner inte honom. Men jag känner hans bror.

Do you know Per? No, I don’t know him. But I know his brother.

Commands and clauses with more than one verb Two or more verbs in succession In English there are certain verbs that can be placed directly in front of another verb, so that you get a succession of verbs, like this:

John Peter Mary

V ERB,

IN FIN ITIV E = v e rb 2

can could must

play sing. dance.

the piano.

The first verb in these combinations is in the present or past. The second verb is in the form called the infinitive. Swedish has similar combinations of verbs: the first verb is, as in English, in the present or past and the second verb is in the infinitive. In Swedish the infinitive usually ends in a:

X VVERB!

SU BJECT Jan

kan

IN FIN ITIVE = v e rb 2 spela

piano.

Jan can play the piano.

Per

kunde

sjunga.

måste

dansa.

borde

arbeta.

får

röka

Per could sing.

Maria M aria must dance.

Vi We should work.

Du

på balkongen.

You may sm oke on the balcony.

Making the infinitive from the present In a dictionary you usually find the verbs given in the infinitive form. W hen you are just beginning to learn Swedish, however, you usually use the present form. So it is useful to be able to work out the infinitive form of a verb if you only know the present form. As you saw in 2.1, most verbs end in the present in a r or er:

35

a r verbs If the verb ends in a r in the present, take away the r: PR ESEN T

Take away r

öppnar arbetar regnar

öppna/ arbeta/ regna/

INFINITIVE

------------ *■ öppna ------------ arbeta “ regna

open work rain

In the past ar verbs end in ade. If you meet this form, you can make the infinitive by taking away de: öppnade—*■ö p p n a ^ —>öppna. er verbs If the verb ends in er in the present, first take away er and then add a: PRESEN T

Take away er

kom mer sover köper

kom m ^/ ------ ►kom m +a -----►komma ------ ►sov+ a ----- *-sova sov^/ köp# -------- ► k ö p + a ----- ►köpa

Add a

INFINITIVE come sleep buy

The er verbs have various past forms, which will be presented in 9.3, 9.7 and 9.8.

Some common auxiliary verbs There are a num ber of verbs which are used only together with another verb. They are called auxiliary verbs (hjälpverb). The other verbs are called main verbs (huvudverb). An auxiliary verb always comes before a main verb. In the table below you will find some of the most im portant auxiliary verbs in Swedish. In the headings in bold print the infinitive is given first; then, in brackets, come the present and past forms. These verbs are very common, so it pays to learn them as quickly as possible. kunna (kan, kunde) ‘be able’ (‘can’, ‘could’) Vi kan komma till er på söndag. Vi kan tala engelska. H on kan spela tennis. H on kunde inte spela igår.

We can come to your house on Sunday. We can speak English. She can play tennis. She could not play yesterday.

vi^a (vill, ville) ‘want to ’ (‘want to ’, ‘wanted to ’) Karin vill titta på TV. Men Olle vill sova. Sten ville stanna hemma.

Karin wants to watch TV. But Olle wants to sleep. Sten wanted to stay at home.

Note that the Swedish word vill does not mean ‘will’ in English, but corre­ sponds to ‘want to ’, or sometimes ‘would like to ’. Note also that where English uses ‘w ant’ followed by a noun as the object, the Swedish verb vilja is followed by ha + the object:

H an vill ha kaffe. H an ville ha grädde till kaffet.

He wants coffee. He wanted cream with his coffee.

få (får, fick) ‘be allowed to ’; ‘have to ’ (‘may’, ‘can’, ‘could’) Du får röka, om du vill. Hon får inte komma ikväll. Vi fick träffa hans fru. Hon fick vänta en timme.

You may (can) smoke if you want to. She can’t (mustn’t, isn’t allowed to) come this evening. We were allowed to meet his wife. or We got to meet his wife. She had to wait an hour.

Note that få used as a main verb, with a noun as the object, means ‘get’, ‘receive’: Hon fick en blomma. D e får alltid en present.

She got (received, was given) a flower. They always get a present.

- (måste, måste) - , ‘have to ’ (‘must’, ‘have to ’, ‘had to ’). This verb does not have an infinitive either in Swedish or in English, and has the same form in the present as in the past. Du måste gå hem nu. Olle måste sälja bilen. Jag måste arbeta hela kvällen igår. Men jag måste inte arbeta varje kväll.

You must go home now. Olle must (had to) sell his car. I had to work the whole evening yesterday. But I do not have to work every evening.

Note that English ‘must not’ corresponds to Swedish får inte: Du får inte röka här.

You must not smoke here.

skola (ska, skulle) - , ‘have to ’ (‘shall’; ‘will’; ‘must’, ‘have to ’; ‘was/were going to ’; ‘should’; ‘would’). With future meaning, see 9.2, ska = ‘is/are going to ’. In written language the form skall is often used instead of ska. Du ska inte göra så. Man ska alltid fråga honom två gånger. Vi skulle ha gjort det igår. De ska köpa ett hus på landet. Vi skulle hjälpa dig. När ska vi komma?

You must not (should not) do that. You always have to ask him twice, We should have done it yesterday. They are going to buy a house in the country. We were going to help you. W hen shall we come?

Note that ska (skall) does not normally correspond to ‘shall’ in English. böra (bör, borde) - (‘should’, ‘ought to’) Man bör inte dricka mer än sex koppar kaffe om dagen. Du borde köpa en ny väska. De borde ha gjort det för länge sedan.

One should not drink more than six cups of coffee a day. You ought to buy a new case. They should have (ought to have) done it long ago.

37

bruka (brukar, brukade) - (-, used to). The English auxiliary has only one form, ‘used to ’, in the past. Bruka, b ru k ar correspond to usually + the main verb. Jag brukar dricka kaffee efter lunch. Josefin brukar skriva dagbok varje dag. Vi brukade spela kort på lördagskvällarna.

I usually have coffee after lunch. Josefin usually writes her diary every day. We used to play cards on Saturday evenings.

behöva (behöver, behövde) ‘need to ’ (‘need to ’, ‘needed to ’) Du behöver bara stanna två dagar. H an behövde inte vänta länge.

You only need to stay two days. He did not need to wait long.

Note that, just as in English, the verb behöva ‘need’ can also be followed by a noun as the object. Jag behöver hjälp.

I need help.

Commands. The imperative If you want to tell someone to do something, you use a form of the verb called the imperative (imperativ)\ Come here. Sit down. In Swedish there is a special imperative form of the verb: Kom hit! Sätt dig!

Come here. Sit down.

If you know the present form of an a r verb or an er verb, you can make the imperative from it. a r verbs The a r verbs have the same form in the imperative as in the infinitive. So you can make the imperative by taking away the r: PR ESEN T

Take away r

öppnar lyssnar väntar

öppna/ lyssna/ vänta/

IM PERA TIV E = INFIN ITIV E

— -----►Öppna! -----►Lyssna! -----" Vänta!

open listen wait

er verbs The er verbs do not have the same form in the imperative as in the infinitive. You make the imperative by taking er away from the present: PRESEN T

Take away er

skriver känner ringer läser

sk riv # känn# ring # lä s #

IM PERA TIVE

---------►Skriv! -►Känn! -►Ring! -►Läs!

write feel ring read

Unfortunately you cannot make the imperative if you only know the infinitive of a verb, since both ar verbs and er verbs end in a. You cannot see from the infinitive which sort of verb it is. (But if you do know that the verb is an er verb, you can make the imperative by taking away the a. If it is an a r verb, you leave the a in the imperative.)

6.5

Commands, requests, and politeness phrases If you want to be polite in English, you often use the word ‘please’ when you ask or tell someone to do something. Similarly in Swedish you can add the phrase är du snäll at the end of the sentence, or var snäll och at the beginning of the sentence: Köp en kvällstidning, är du snail. Stäng dörren, ä r du snäll. Var snäll och hämta en kudde.

Buy an evening paper, please. Please close the door. Fetch a cushion, please.

Snäll is an adjective which literally means ‘kind’, ‘nice’. If you ask several people to do something, you must use the plural form snälla (see 11.5). Stäng dörren, ä r ni snälla. Var snälla och stäng dörren.

Close the door, please. Please close the door.

Again, just as in English, it is common in Swedish not to use an imperative but to ask if someone can or could do something for you. The following questions do not expect an answer; they expect that the person you ask will do what is asked of him or her: Kan du öppna fönstret? Kan du räcka mig saxen? Kan Ni stänga ytterdörren?

6.6

Can you open the window? Can you pass me the scissors? Could you close the front door?

Word order in clauses with more than one verb The tables for word order which we have already looked at can be expanded to make room for a sequence of two or more verbs. The first verb in the table is marked with a 1: V E R B ^ If there are any more verbs in the clause they are placed under VERB:

39

/V

SU BJECT

VERB!

VERB

O BJECT

Ola

behöver

låna

pengar.

A D V ER B IA L

O la needs to borrow money.

Jag

måste

till posten snart

gå

I must go to the post office soon.

Det

börjar

regna

nu.

sluta röka

i december.

It is beginning to rain now.

Hon

måste

She must stop sm oking in D ecem ber.

Vi

hörde

ett flygplan.

We heard a plane.

If the clause only has one verb, as in the last example, it is, of course, placed under V E R B ,.

6.7

Sentence adverbials There is a special group of adverbials that are placed in a different position in the clause from the other adverbials. They are called sentence adverbials (satsadverbial) . Actually inte ‘not’ (see 4.1) belongs to this group of adver­ bials. O thers are alltid ‘always’, ofta ‘often’, ibland ‘sometimes’, aldrig ‘never’, säkert ‘certainly’, nog ‘probably’, kanske ‘perhaps’, tyvärr ‘unfortu­ nately’, lyckligtvis ‘fortunately’, sällan ‘seldom’. These sentence adverbials are placed directly after V ERBi:

/ V SUBJECT V ER B j

SENTENCE A D V E R B IA L V ERB

O BJECT

A D V ER B IA L

Vi

inte

dricka

mjölk

till maten.

skriva

postnummer

på alla brev.

vill

We do not want to drink milk with our food.

Du

måste

alltid

You must always write the postal code on all letters.

D et

brukar

aldrig

snöa

i augusti.

sova

åtta timmar.

It very rarely snows in August.

Alla

behöver

inte

N ot everybody needs to sleep eight hours.

Olle

reser

sällan

utomlands.

O lle seldom travels abroad.

Vi

träffade

ofta

We often m et Per in Stockholm.

40

Per

i Stockholm.

As we saw when we dealt with clauses containing only one verb, the verb comes before the subject in yes/no questions (see 4.2), in question-word questions (4.3) and with fronting (4.6). In clauses with more than one verb it is V ER Bj that is placed before the subject. The next few sections deal with the word order in this kind of clause. To make it easier for you to see the pattern we will not specify the parts of the sentence that follow the sentence adverbial. They are not affected, and follow the same word order as in the table above.

6.8

Yes/no questions with more than one verb When you make a question that can be answered ‘Yes’ or ‘N o’ (a yes/no question, 4.2), V ER B , is placed at the beginning of the sentence and is followed directly by the subject:

VERB!

SU BJECT

SENTENCE A D V E R B IA L

Vill

ni

inte

dricka mjölk till maten?

D o n ’t you want to drink milk with your food?

Kan

du

börja jobba på måndag?

Can you start work on M onday?

Måste

flickan

komma tillbaka imorgon?

D oes the girl have to come back tom orrow ?

Brukar

de

stanna i Sverige på sommaren?

D o they usually stay in Sweden in the summ er?

Känner

du

Sven?

D o you know Sven?

Regnar

det

ofta

på sommaren?

D oes it often rain in the sum m er?

In short answers (4.7) the auxiliary verb is repeated. It cannot be replaced by gora. Kan du simma? - Ja, det kan jag. - N ej, det kan jag inte. Vill hon spela? - Ja, det vill hon. - N ej, det vill hon inte.

Can you swim? - Yes, I can. - No, I can’t. Does she want to play? - Yes, she does. - No, she doesn’t.

41

6.9

Question-word questions and fronting with more than one verb The rules for question-word questions and for fronting can be combined in one rule. The table showing the word order is then as follows:

X or Q U ESTIO N W ORD

V ER B,

SUBJECT

Imorgon

måste

du

SENTENCE A D V E R B IA L komma i tid.

T om orrow you must be on time.

H är

får

du

inte

röka.

Sten

alltid

titta på TV hela kvällen

Y ou m ustn’t sm oke here.

Förr

ville

Sten always used to w ant to watch TV all evening

Vad

vill

ni

göra imorgon?

W hat do you want to do tom orrow ?

H ur dags

får

jag

ringa?

jag

fråga?

W hat tim e can I phone?

Vem

kan

W ho can I ask?

Vem

kan

inte

simma?

W ho can’t swim?

Vad

hände

på festen i fredags?

W hat happened at the party on Friday?

You can only leave the subject position empty when the question word is the subject, as in the last two questions.

42

Complex sentences

As we saw in 1.3, a sentence can consist of one or more clauses. A sentence that consists of only one clause is called a simple sentence (enkel mening). A sentence that consists of two ore m ore clauses is called a complex sentence (sammansatt mening). The first two sentences below consist of only one clause; they are simple sentences, The remaining three sentences are complex sentences. Per sings. Lotta plays the accordion. Per sings and Lotta plays the accordion. They say that Per sings. They say that Per sings and that Lotta plays the accordion.

Per sjunger. Lotta spelar dragspel. Per sjunger och Lotta spelar dragspel. D e säger, att Per sjunger. D e säger, att Per sjunger och att Lotta spelar dragspel.

In previous chapters we have seen how simple sentences consisting of only one clause are made. In this chapter we shall show how complex sentences are made by joining simple sentences together in various ways.

Coordination and subordination Two clauses can be joined together by och ‘and’. This is called coordination (samordning): Per sjunger. CO Per sjunger

I och

I Lotta spelar dragspel. O R D IN A T IO N Lotta spelar dragspel.

The clauses that are coordinated by och are equal. One clause can also be included in another clause, so that it becomes a part of the other clause. This is called subordination (underordning). In the following example the clause Per b ru k ar äta vitlök (Per usually eats garlic 1 is subordinated by being introduced by att ‘th at’: Per brukar äta vitlök.

Eva säger det.

P er usually eats garlic.

Eva says so.

SUB

O R D IN A T IO N

Eva säger, att Per brukar äta vitlök. Eva says that Per usually eats garlic.

43

The clause introduced by att acts as the object of the verb säger ‘says’ in the same way as det does in the first example. Compare the examples in the following table showing word order:

SUBJECT

VERB

OBJECT

Eva Eva

säger säger,

det. att Per brukar äta vitlök.

Main clause and subordinate clause A distinction is also made between main clauses and subordinate clauses. A clause that is part of another clause is called a subordinate clause or a sub­ clause (bisats). A subordinate clause can never make a sentence by itself. A clause which is independent and is not part of another clause is called a main clause (huvudsats). A clause that makes a sentence by itself is always a main clause: M AIN C LA U SE

M AIN CLAUSE

Per sjunger.

Per sings.

A sentence must always contain at least one main clause. If you coordinate two main clauses, they are still main clauses: M AIN CLA U SE Per sjunger

MAIN CLAUSE och

Lotta spelar dragspel.

Per sings and L otta plays the accordion.

If you use subordination, one clause is changed into a subordinate clause. The clause that the subordinate clause is part of is the main clause. The example given in 7.1 is built up in the following way: M AIN CLA U SE Eva säger, att Per brukar äta vitlök. SUB-CLAUSE If you coordinate two subordinate clauses with och ‘and’, they remain sub­ clauses: M AIN CLAUSE Eva säger, att Per sjunger och att Lotta spelar dragspel. SUB-CLAUSE

SUB-CLAUSE

There are several different kinds of subordinate clauses. The most important of them will be described in the following sections.

7.3 Att clauses Subordinate clauses that begin with att are called att clauses (att-bisatser). They usually act as the object of verbs like säga ‘say’, veta ‘know’, tro ‘think’, se ‘see’ and höra ‘hear’: M annen sa, att han var trött. Jag tror, att Elsa kom mer hit ikväll. Alla vet, att chefen kom för sent imorse. Vi såg nog, att du gäspade. Jag hör, att någon startar en bil.

The man said that he was tired. I think that Elsa will come here this evening. Everyone knows that the boss was late this morning. We saw that you yawned alright. I can hear that someone is starting a car.

As in English, you can leave out the word att ‘that’, but not always. You can do so, for exam ple, in the first two sentences above: M annen sa han var trött. Jag tror Elsa kom m er hit ikväll.

The man said he was tired. I think Elsa will come here this evening.

But it is never wrong to include att, so it is simplest to do so if you are not sure which is best. In Swedish you can put a comma (kom m atecken) (,) before an att clause, provided that att is not om itted. However, the comma is not obligatory. Usually the comma is om itted if the a tt clause is relatively short, as in the examples above. We have included the comma, however, to show where it may be placed.

7.4

Adverbial clauses Subordinate clauses can also act as adverbials. These clauses are called adverbial clauses (adverbialsbisatser). It is easy to recognize adverbial clauses by their opening word. The commonest words that open adverbial clauses are: n är ‘w hen’ Mamman vaknade när barnet började gråta.

The mother woke up when the child began to cry.

innan ‘before’ Karin gör läxorna innan hon äter middag. medan ‘while’ D u kan läsa tidningen medan jag duschar.

Karin does her homework before she has supper. You can read the paper while I have a shower.

45

om ‘if I’ll go home if Lisa comes here.

Jag går hem om Lisa kom m er hit. därför att ‘because’

Olle cried because Ville had teased him.

Olle grät, därför att Ville hade retat honom. eftersom ‘since’, ‘as’

We didn’t bathe as (since) the water was polluted.

Vi badade inte, eftersom vattnet var förorenat. fastän ‘although’, ‘though’

Olle fell asleep on the sofa although the family was watching TV.

Olle somnade i soffan, fastän familjen tittade på TV.

trots att ‘although’, ‘in spite of the fact th at’ Vi gav oss iväg, trots att det regnade.

We set off although (in spite of the fact that) it was raining.

Adverbial clauses can be placed in a word-order table. They come in the same place as other adverbials:

/V

SUBJECT

V ERB

O BJECT

A D V E R B IA L

Jag

träffade

Lisa

imorse.

Lisa

när jag handlade mat.

I m et Lisa this m orning.

Jag

träffade

I m et Lisa when I was doing the food shopping.

Jag

betalar

bensinen

om du skjutsar mig hem.

I’ll pay for the petrol if you give me a lift home.

Olle

somnade

i soffan, fastän familjen tittade på TV.

O lle fell asleep on th e sofa although the family was watching TV.

Adverbial clauses can be placed first in the sentence just like other adverbi­ als (see 4.6). Note that the subject must come after the verb in the main clause, in exactly the same way as when an ordinary adverbial is placed at the front of the sentence: X Imorse

VERB träffade

jag

SUBJECT

O BJECT Lisa.

träffade

jag

Lisa.

jag

bensinen.

A D V E R B IA L

This m orning, I m et Lisa.

När jag handlade m at,

W hen I was doing the food shopping, I m et Lisa.

Om du skjutsar mig hem,

betalar

If you give me a lift hom e, I'll pay for the petrol.

Fastän familjen tittade på TV,

somnade

Olle

A lthough the family was watching T V , Olle fell asleep on the sofa.

46

i soffan.

A comma can be placed both before and after an adverbial clause in Swedish, if it is necessary for the sake of clarity. The comma is often omitted in these cases, too. We have included the comma in the examples above merely to show where it may be placed. The comma is not obligatory. Note that the subject can never be left out after the subordinators listed above: Eva gick till jobbet, trots att hon var förkyld. När jag gick längs gatan, träffade jag min vän Per.

7.5

Eva went to work in spite of having a cold. Walking along the street I met my friend Per.

Word order in subordinate clauses The word order in a subordinate clause is in certain respects different from the word order in a main clause. This is particularly true of the position of sentence adverbials (com pare 6.7). Sentence adverbials are always placed before the verb in a subordinate clause. Compare the following examples in which the same clause appears first as a main clause and then as a subordi­ nate clause: Sten vill inte sova. Olle säger, att Sten inte vill sova.

Sten doesn’t want to sleep. Olle says that Sten doesn’t want to sleep.

Per kom m er alltid för sent. Vi väntar inte på Per, eftersom han alltid kom m er för sent.

Per is always late. We w on’t wait for Per as he is always late.

De slutar inte sjunga. Jag blir arg, om de inte slutar sjunga.

They don’t stop singing. I’ll get angry if they don’t stop singing.

In English sentences the sentence adverbials have the same position in both main and subordinate clauses, so it is im portant to rem em ber that the word order is not the same in Swedish: sentence adverbials in subordinate clauses always come before the verb in Swedish. Also, the subject always comes before the verb in a subordinate clause. H ere it is not possible to put any other part of a sentence before the subject. However, as we have seen, subordinate clauses usually begin with an open­ ing word called a subordinator (bisatsinledare). The following table shows how the word order in a subordinate clause differs from the word order in a main clause:

47

SUB O RD ^^SE N T E N C E ^. IN A TO R SUBJECT A D V E R B IA L V ERB, att Sten inte vill

Olle säger,

(the rest as in a main clause) sova.

O lle says that Sten does not want to sleep.

Camilla säger,

att

hon

kan

spela tennis.

Camilla says that she can play tennis.

Ola säger,

att

han

inte

kan

spela tennis.

de

alltid

reser

till fjällen på vintern

O la says that he cannot play tennis.

Jag vet,

att

I know that they always go up to the m ountains in the winter.

Per tippar,

trots att

han

aldrig

vinner.

inte

måste

jobba över.

ofta

skojar

om allting.

Per does the pools although he never wins.

Vi kommer,

om

vi

W e’ll com e if we do not have to work overtim e.

Alla gillar Eva,

eftersom

hon

Everybody likes Eva as she often jokes about everything.

7.6

Relative clauses There is also a type of sub-clause that tells you more about a noun. This is called a relative clause (relativbisats). Relative clauses in English are mostly introduced by ‘who’, ‘which 1 or ‘th a t’. In Swedish they are introduced by som. This word never changes its form: Sten har en syster, som bor i Malmö. Lasse känner en kvinna, som arbetar på DN. Stig har en papegoja som talar. Ann har två dockor, som är sönder.

Sten has a sister who lives in Malmö. Lasse knows a woman who works at DN. Stig has a parrot that talks. Ann has two dolls which are broken.

Relative clauses are described in greater detail in 16.7.

48

Pronunciation and spelling

Pronunciation and spelling have already been described briefly in 1.1.

Vowels and consonants The sounds of all languages are divided into two m ajor groups: vowels (vokaler) and consonants (konsonanter). The vowels can be sub-divided into vowels and diphthongs. A diphthong (diftong) is a combination of two vowel sounds. In standard British English there are 12 vowels, 9 diphthongs and 24 consonants. Many of these sounds do not have their own letters. Instead they are represented by combinations of letters, like th, ch, oy and other special spelling patterns. The Swedish language has 9 vowels and 18 consonants; it does not have any diphthongs, except in certain dialects. Vowels

Consonants

i e ä y ö o å a u

p t k b d g s s j t j h f v j 1 r m n ng

Several of the consonant sounds in Swedish do not have a letter of their own. They are spelt by using a combination of several letters which is read as one sound. This will be explained later on. In Swedish, as in English, you can often hear from a person’s pronunci­ ation where he or she comes from. Pronunciation varies from one part of the country to another. In the following we shall mainly describe the pronunci­ ation in Stockholm and central Sweden.

How sounds in language are made. Voiced and voiceless sounds To understand the difference between vowels and consonants you need to know something about the ways in which the sounds in a language are made. These sounds are formed when air passes from the lungs through the larynx, the throat and the m outh. In the larynx the air passes through a narrow passage. The edges of this passage form the vocal chords. If the vocal chords are brought towards each other, they are caused to vibrate by the air from the lungs. This creates a vocal tone. You can test this out on yourself by saying a longdrawn aaaaa. If you put two fingers on your larynx, you will be able to feel the vibrations. Sounds made with a vocal tone are called voiced sounds (tonande ljud). The opposite of voiced is voiceless (tonlös), that is

49

sounds without a vocal tone. All vowels are voiced. Consonants, however, can be divided into voiced consonants and voiceless consonants. You can test the difference by saying a long-drawn vvvvv and a long-drawn sssss. If you put two fingers on your larynx, you will feel that v is voiced (vibrations) and that s is voiceless. (Be careful not to say a vowel at the same time. D on’t say ess.) The most im portant difference between vowels and consonants is that air can pass freely through the windpipe and m outh when you say a vowel sound, while there is a constriction or closing somewhere when you say a consonant. You notice this most clearly when the ‘block’ is at the lips. Say the consonant p, for example in the word paper. Notice how the lips close completely for an instant when you say the p ’s and open when you say the vowels a and e. You can try looking in a m irror at the same time.

Length and stress In 1.1 we pointed out that Swedish distinguishes between long and short vowels in pronunciation. English does not have the same clear distinction, though the words hit and heat can be said to have a short and a long i sound respectively. The spelling of short and long vowels in Swedish is not very consistent. A single vowel (letter) is used in writing both when the vowel is pronounced long and when it is pronounced short. To make it easier for you to pro­ nounce the Swedish words we will use a special marking system. A dash (_) is placed under the long vowels and a dot (.) under the short ones. These marks are not used in ordinary w ritten texts in Swedish: Norm al text

M arked text

tal tall rik risk

tal tall rik rjsk

speech pine rich risk

The words in the examples above have only one vowel. But many words have m ore than one vowel, which creates another difficulty in Swedish: stress (betoning). Stress means that you say one part of a word with more emphasis than the rest. In Swedish it is usually the first vowel that is stressed (betonad), but as in English there are also quite a few words which do not follow this rule. One example is the word banan ‘banana’. As in English, the first vowel is not stressed but the second one is, though this is, of course, not indicated by the spelling. There is a connection between stress and length in Swedish: A stressed vowel m ay be either long or short. A n unstressed vowel is always short.

This means that we can use the marks for long and short vowels to show where a word is stressed. With the words that have been marked for pronunciation the marks for long and short vowels have only been used under the stressed vowel. If a vowel is not m arked it is unstressed and short. Normally one and only one vowel is stressed in a word. If a word only has one vowel, it is automatically stressed, when the word is said in isolation. The usual rule is that the first vowel in a word is stressed, but there are quite a few exceptions to this rule. Many are words that have been borrowed from other languages, such as French. H ere are some examples of words with different lengths and stress patterns. First, some examples of words with the stress on the first vowel: vila silar

villa sjllar

rest strainers

house herrings

A nd here are some words with the stress not on the first vowel: magasin paket betona

w arehouse packet stress

tablett metall försök

tablet

teater

theatre

behålla

keep

m etal try

H ere are some words which are very similar in English and Swedish, where the stress is on the first vowel in English but not in Swedish: Italy telephone formal

Italien telefon formell

8.4 Acute and grave accent In Swedish pronunciation there is another feature which has no equivalent in English. It is the difference between what are called the acute and the grave accent (akut accent, grav accent). Certain words differ only in the accent they have, for example: Acute accent

Grave accent

anden stegen vaken

anden stegen vaken

the duck the steps the hole in the ice

the spirit the ladder awake

The stress is on the same vowel in these pairs of words, but they are pronounced with different ‘tunes’, which m ark the only difference between them . This difference is quite difficult to hear if Swedish is not your native language. It may help you to think of the acute accent as being the usual tone, with a low falling tone on the second syllable. The grave accent has a higher falling tone on the second syllable, rather like the way you say side in

51

the word offside. In fact, there are very few cases where you will be misunderstood if you use the wrong accent. So you can wait until a more advanced level to learn the two accents.

Swedish long vowels Here is a complete list of the long vowels in Swedish. The comparisons with English refer to British English. i

is pronounced more or less as the vowel sound in bee, mean, but a little more closed: vin wine vila rest

e is pronounced as French é : te tea leka

play

ä is somewhat like the sound in men, but longer: läsa read häl heal y is pronounced rather like the French u or the German u : ny new lysa shine ö is pronounced rather like the French eu in peu\ Öl beer dö die o is pronounced rather like the oo in school: ros rose sol sun å is rather like the ou in ought, though closer: år year låna borrow a is pronounced like the a in father, though a little further back in the mouth: vara be ja yes u is a difficult sound to pronounce correctly. Keep your lips close together, hus house mur wall Some points to note: i/y The difference between these two sounds is that y is pronounced with the lips rounded. Make a long i sound and then round your lips and you will get the y sound. Ask someone who speaks Swedish to pronounce i and y one after the other and see how the lips move. Look in a mirror when you practise saying these sounds yourself, e/ö These two sounds differ in the same way as i and y. Make a long e sound and round your lips and you will get the ö sound. Note that the long vowels i, y, u and o finish with a consonant-like sound: bi

bee

by

village

bu!

boo!

bo

live

People who are not native speakers of Swedish can easily confuse words like bo ‘live’ and bov ‘villain’.

8.6 Swedish short vowels A part from being shorter, of course, certain of the Swedish short vowels differ from the corresponding long ones in special ways. u

u The biggest difference is between long and short u. Try to hear the difference and repeat the following pairs of words: bus

buss

m ischief

bus

hus

hund

house

dog

rusa

rusta

rush

arm (with weapons)

sluta

slutta

stop

slope

e = ä In most parts of Sweden there is no difference between the vowels e and ä when they are pronounced short. Both of them are pronounced very like the sound in bed. There are even certain words that are pronounced exactly the same although they are spelt in different ways: s?tt

sätt

seen

way, m anner

There are no other special differences between the long and short pronunci­ ations of the other vowels: |

y. Ö 9 o

a

a

vin

vinn

wine

win

syl

sylt

awl

jam

föl

föll

foal

fell

rot

rott

root

rowed

hål

håll

hole

direction

hat

hatt

hate

hat

Note that the short a does not have the å quality of the long a. N ote, too, that the short vowels keep their distinct pronunciations even when they are unstressed and are not reduced to e. heder hedar

honour

redo rede reda

ready, prepared

heaths

nest

flickor pojkar

girls

gäster hästar

guests

boys

horses

order

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Pronunciation of ö and ä before r The vowels ö and ä are pronounced in a special way when they come before an r. This special sound may be m arked with a small raised r, thus: ör, är. You can hear a clear difference between these sounds and an ordinary ö or ä in the following: Ö Ö ä ä

ör 9r är är

hö

hör

hay

hear

dött

dörr

died

door

häl

här

heel

here

m ätt

märr

full-up

m are

In particular you should practise recognizing the sounds öT and äTwhen you listen to Swedish. It is not particularly disturbing, on the other hand, if you use an ordinary ö and ä in your own pronunciation. In fact, in certain parts of Sweden this is the pronunciation you will hear. Note that a short ä sound is pronounced in this special way even when it is spelt with an e. (As mentioned in 8 . 6 the e sound and the short ä sound are pronounced the same.) Thus the first vowel in the following word is pro­ nounced as ä although it is spelt with an e: h ^ rre

lord, m aster

Pronunciation of the letter o The letter o can cause problems in Swedish. The sound o is always spelt with this letter. But the trouble is that the sound å is also spelt with the letter o in certain words. In particular a short å sound is often spelt in this way. So when you learn a word with the short å sound, you must make sure to learn w hether it is spelt with the letter å or the letter o. All the following words are pronounced with a short å sound although the spelling varies: å sound

lopp m ått jobb

race m easurem ent, size job

A short o sound is actually rather unusual in Swedish, so you may reasonably suppose that the letter o will be pronounced as a short o sound. The words which in fact have a short o sound are, however, spelt with the letter o, for example ost ‘cheese’. Because o f these difficulties you should always pay special attention to the pronunciation of a word which is spelt with the letter o. There are the following possibilities:

Letter

Sound sol lov

sun

å 0

ost

cheese

å

jobb

job

0

Compare: hov (o) kol (å) kort ( q )

hoof coal card

holiday

hov (å) kål (å) kort (å)

court

(Normal) (Exception) (Few Swedish words are pro­ nounced with a short o.) (Normal spelling of the short o.) (Normal spelling of the short å sound.)

håv (å)

bag net

cabbage short

The letter å never causes any trouble. It is always pronounced as an &sound.

8.9

Swedish consonants All consonants are form ed by the air which passes through the windpipe and emerges at the m outh being obstructed at some point (see 8.2). Consonants differ from each other in three different ways: • The obstacle to the passage of air can occur at different points. • The passage of air may be obstructed in different ways. • Some consonants are voiced and others are voiceless (8.2). We shall look particularly closely here at two groups of consonants. They are the stops and the fricatives. The latter group comprises several sounds that are difficult to learn.

8.9.1 Swedish stops W hen you say a stop, the stream of air is completely blocked for an instant. That is what happens when you say a p in the word ape. You close your lips when you say a p . (You can check this by looking in a m irror.) O ther stops are t and k. They are different from p because the blockage occurs at another point. W hen you say t, you raise the tip of your tongue to a point just behind your top front teeth; when you say k the back of your tongue is raised and touches your soft palate so that the stream of air is checked for an instant. Swedish has the following stops:

Voiceless Voiced

P b

t d

k 9

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Just as in English, the stops in the top and bottom row are paired off, as the stream of air is blocked at the same point. The difference is that the upper stop in each pair is voiceless, while the lower one is voiced (8.2). These sounds are all pronounced almost identically in Swedish and English. One slight difference is that t and d in Swedish are pronounced with the tongue against the back of the upper front teeth, not as in English with the tongue just above the front teeth.

8.9.2 Swedish fricatives W hen you say a fricative, the stream of air passes through a narrow opening, which makes a kind of hissing sound. But the opening is not so narrow as to stem the air stream completely. The Swedish fricatives are:

f

Voiceless Voiced

s

Sj

tj*

V

As you can see, Swedish does not have the voiced equivalents of s, sj and tj as English has. Thus there is no z sound in Swedish as there is in English words like busy, nose. N or does Swedish have the th fricatives of English words like thing and that. f, v and s have identical pronunciations in English and Swedish, and so cause no trouble. The letter combination s 4 - j in Swedish is pronounced as one sound. The same is true of the combination t + j . The sound represented by sj is rather like the English sh sound in shop, but is form ed further back in the m outh with the lips more rounded. This sound is also spelt sk, skj, stj, sch or ch (see 8.12-8.13). The sound represented by tj is the voiceless counterpart of the Swedish /, which is very similar to the y in the English word young (see 8.10). It can be m ade by saying a long-drawn Swedish j, but suppressing the voicing to make the sound voiceless (see 8.2). It is a little like the English ch sound in church without the t sound at the beginning. It may also be spelt k, kj. It is im portant in Swedish to keep the two sounds sj and tj separate. It is the difference between these sounds that constitutes the difference between the following words (note that there is only one consonant sound before the first vowel): skjuta

tjuta

skära

tjära

shoot

howl

cut

tar

chpck

tjock

skälla

källa

(ch is pronounced

fat

bark

source

skön

kön

lovely

sex

as sf) shock

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8.10 Other consonants The other consonants in Swedish do not cause much trouble. They are very nearly identical with the same consonants in English: mat mäta

food

n

natt

night

ng

säng sång finger

song

m

h

ha hamn

m easure

bed

finger

The letter combination ng is always pro­ nounced in Swedish as in the English word singer and not as in finger.

have harbour yes

The j sound is normally pronounced like the y sound in the English word yes.

yo-yo

1

ja j9-jo lära

learn

The Swedish I is always pronounced like the / sound in the English word love, and never as in the words milk, well etc.

r

röd

red

The Swedish r is usually slightly rolled, like the Scottish r. In the south of Sweden a spe­ cial burred r is used. Note that Swedish r at the end of words has the same sound as at the beginning of words. It is not dropped as in British English words like car, doctor.

j

8.11 Consonant combinations As well as learning to pronounce single consonant sounds you will also have to learn to pronounce various combinations of consonants. There are quite a few of them , as Swedish, just like English, can have two or even three consonant sounds before a vowel. When there are three consonants, the first one is always s, as in strand ‘beach’. N ote that k and g are always pronounced before an n at the beginning of a word: knä knacka gnaga

knee knock gnaw

A fter a vowel gn is pronounced ng + n: vagn lugn

carriage calm

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8.12 Letters combined with j pronounced as one sound We saw in 8.9.2 that the letter combinations sj and tj are pronounced as one sound. There are some other combinations that are pronounced in the same way; all of them end in the letter j. In addition there are certain combina­ tions consisting of a consonant -I- j in which the first letter is not pronounced. These combinations are therefore pronounced as j: Sound

Example djup gjorde hjälpa ljus

deep

sjuk stjärna skjorta

sick

tjock kjol

did help light

star shirt fat skirt

In words borrowed from other languages there are also a few letter com bina­ tions which are pronounced sj or tj: sj

tj

sch: schack, schema sh: sherry, shQppa ch: chock, chef, chaufför, chans

check, charter

The many loan words which end in -tion and -sion, are pronounced as if they were spelt -sjon: station lektion diskussion

station lesson discussion

In a few words a t is heard before the sj sound in -tion: nation ‘nation’, motion ‘exercise’.

8.13 Pronunciation of the letters g, k and sk before front vowels Vowels can be divided into two groups, called front vowels and back vowels, in the following way. (The term s refer to the highest point on the back of the tongue when saying the vowel.)

58

Front vowels

Back vowels

i e ö ä y

o å a u

W hen the letters g, k and sk come before a front vowel, they are not pronounced in the usual way. Instead, the letter g is pronounced j as in ja , the letter k tj as in tjugo and the letters sk sj as in sjunga. Letter

Sound

Example

g

j

ge göra kyla köra skina skön

k

tj

sk

sj

give do, make cold (noun) drive shine lovely

Before a back vowel these letters are pronounced in the usual way. N ote that after r and 1 the letter g is pronounced as rg —>rj lg —* Ij

berg helg

mountain tprg public holiday

market square

8.14 Pronunciation of the consonant combinations rt, rdy m and rs In central and northern Sweden the letter r combined with certain other letters is pronounced as one sound. O ne example of this kind of combination is r + t. In a word like borta ‘away’, for example, rt is pronounced as one sound. If you are a beginner you need not worry too much about pronounc­ ing this sound; rt pronounced in the ordinary way will not lead to misunder­ standing and does, in fact, occur in certain parts of the country. The biggest problem is to hear the sound that occurs in such words when rt is pro­ nounced as one sound. The same is true of the other combinations, rd , rn and rs, and also of the combination rl, which is, however, not very common. So practise listening to the difference between the following pairs of words: fat

fart

saucer

speed

bod

bord

shed

ton

table

-

tom

tone

tower

mos

mors

pulp

m other’s

The same pronunciation also occurs when a word ends in r and the next word begins with one of the consonants t, d, n or s. In the following short sentences you will see examples of this. A little link is placed between r and the consonant which are pronounced as one sound.

59

rt rd rn rs

Han drickerje. Förstårdu? H arn i tid? Du kommer för sent.

He is drinking tea. Do you understand? Have you got time? You are too late.

8.15 Doubled consonants As we have seen, the length of vowels is not given by the spelling in Swedish. But for consonants it is. The basic rule is:

A doubled consonant is pronounced as a long consonant sound.

As well as there being a difference between long and short vowels, there is also a difference between long and short consonants, as in the following examples: hat hate

- hatt hat

sil

- sjll

strainer

rys

herring

shudder

- ryss Russian (noun)

Long consonants are not at all common in English and only occur between two words, for example: ‘black coffee’, ‘good dog’; but they are very common in Swedish. One peculiarity of Swedish spelling is that the letter k is not doubled. Instead ck is used: lack

varnish

tacka

thank

ck replaces kk.

The pronunciation of long and short consonants does not usually cause any great difficulty. Also, the difference between a long and a short vowel is very much more important than the difference between a long and a short consonant. In Swedish a long vowel cannot come directly before a long consonant; it can only come before a short consonant. So you can usually work out from the spelling whether a vowel should be pronounced long or short. There is one condition: that you know whether the vowel is stressed or not. So the following rules apply only to words that contain one vowel only, since if there is only one vowel it must be stressed (when the word is pronounced in isolation. See 8.3):

60

A vowel is pronounced as a long vowel if the vowel is stressed and a) not followed by a consonant b) followed by only one consonant A vowel is pronounced as a short vowel if a) it is followed by a double consonant b) it is followed by two or more consonants c) it is unstressed, as is the second vowel in this word

Ordinary text

Marked text

bi bil

bi bil

Bill bild

Bjll bild

bilda

bilda

If a word has only one vowel, you can tell from the spelling whether the vowel is long or short. The problem is that you cannot be sure where the stress is in a word which has more than one vowel. As the stress is usually on the first vowel in Swedish, you can guess that the first vowel is stressed and then use the rules given above. If you want to be certain, you will have to look the word up in a book which marks the stress, or ask someone who knows how it is pronounced. So it pays dividends to note down new words and mark the length and stress. In certain cases you can work out that the stress is not on the first vowel when there is more than one vowel in a word. If a consonant is doubled, the vowel directly before it will normally be stressed and short. Compare the following words: fprmel

form al

hot?ll

formula

formal

hotel

Note also the following rule:

Adding an ending does not normally change length and stress.

Compare the following words: vals

vals (val + s)

waltz

of an election

svans

svans (svan + s)

tail

of a swan

8.16 Doubling of m and n There are special rules for the doubling of m and n.

The letter m is doubled only between two vowels.

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Otherwise only one m is written, even if it is long and comes directly after a short stressed vowel. If a word ends in a stressed vowel + m, the vowel is sometimes pronounced long, and sometimes short: Between two vowels

A t the end o f a i

kQmma rymmet

KQm! ett rum

Come!

the room the lady

en dam

a lady

But: damen

come

a room

Note that this rule means that there is an unexpected change in the spelling of certain words when they have an ending. This is not reflected in a change of pronunciation. For n note that:

The letter n is not doubled at the end of a few very com m on words.

(Han) kan (H e) can But: kunna be able to en man a man But: mannen the man